Mornings and Mournings
I’m not sure where I saw it, but there was a photograph of a beautiful little girl dressed-up in her kindergarten school clothes. The photo captured the child’s happy anticipation of beginning her first year of school.
She had shiny, taffy colored braids and big brown eyes. She carried a Hello Kitty lunch box and it was obvious she was wearing new school shoes.
On the top of the photo, or maybe the bottom as I can’t quite recall, these words were printed:
Born
I’m starting this national day of mourning by thinking of morning: a little girl, dressed for school on a crisp September morning.
Terrorists --and politicians who use terrorism as just another campaign ploy -- don’t want us to think of beginnings on this day – they want us to remember endings. Which, unless you live under a rock, you will do all day today.
But to me terrorism wins when it takes over a whole country and gets every one of us biting our nails, looking over our shoulders, and allowing government to invade our privacy (for our own good of course, everything is always for our own good.)
What I will also think about today is how a sheriff in the old west could hang up a photo in the post office which showed a picture of a person and underneath the photo it said Wanted: Dead or Alive.
Some mercenary with a gun strapped on his hip would ride off into the sunset and in a few days, ride back into town with a body over the back of his horse.
George Bush, so he said, wanted Osama bin Laden dead or alive, but Osama keeps on keeping on. Have we run out of mercenaries?
I would think with the intelligence tools we have, the weapons we have, the money we could put up as a reward for bringing this murderer to justice, we would have him by now.
And we would have him by now if our resources were directed towards catching him, a real life person rather than spending billions of dollars and thousands of lives looking for imaginary weapons of mass destruction.
Osama is a living, breathing weapon of mass destruction. He is wanted dead or alive.
I want Bush to keep his promise and go gunning for the son-of-a-bitch.
posted by mary bishop | 8:14 AM
19 Comments:
I am quite drawn to that image of beginnings, too. Over the others.
Thank you for writing about that today.
(P.S. Therefore, it's safe to come over today.;)
Thanks Sheryl -- I keep thinking that as long as we live in fear and in constant mourning we cannot get on with the act of living.
I like your imagery.
As for OBL... i don't think BushCo WANTS to catch him. Once they do they can't trot him out every time they need numbers. or distract from when they are doing something bad. Or randomly raise the terror alert whenever they need a bump in poll numbers. I think they know exactly where he is, and will nap him - ohh say... RIGHT before an important election that they think the republicans will lose...
Call me a cynic...but alas...
Ilanna, I could call you a cynic and then you could call me one right back because I can't help but feel the same way.
This being a day to reflect I choose to remember all of those who lost their lives. Every ending is the beginning of something else.
The ending of the WTC and Flight 93 and part of the Pentagon is the beginning of one of the USAs shining moments no matter how brief it was. We pulled together for a moment in a time and in that moment Our president seemed competent. And we all pulled together as a nation.
I remember on 9/16/01 I was at a preseason hockey game. rangers vs flyers.
during the 2nd intermission they played the state of the union address. it being philly (we boo everything;) ) when they went to play the game again noone wanted to watch it. they boo'ed the players we wanted to watch what our president had to say. in that hour I thought wow our president is actually saying something useful. it seemed surreal like being in a movie and the place was going to blow up. my hubby and i kept expecting it. the place btw was packed their were no empty seats. the game went unplayed and ended in a tie.
it was a shining moment for us and we thought that our president would go after osama and would accept help from others.
well we know that didnt happen and he ended up alienating us from the rest of the world but for a short time we had almost the whole world's support and affection.
life moves on-
Children were born are still being born and we will all grow in our own way knowing that we are no longer safe from terrorists. However much good has come out of such a loss. We have heroes out of ordinary people.
im sorry so long but this is the first year i have been able to sit down and watch memorials and tributes and such- usually i avoid them. but i know i need to feel the pain again and i need to know what actually happened no matter how it may affect me.
That was a beautiful comment Jackie and you have reminded me too of that feeling of bonding together as one people we had for such a short time.
hey totally unrelated to this post but related to a previous post...
my boss just sent out an email that her MIL rescued 3 kittens... all you have to do is drive to Delaware:)
Isn't that always the way - the kittens are in Del and I'm in Conn -- but I have a good feeling now about the whole kitten thing. I have a local connection looking plus, I'm going on vacation to P-town in two weeks and they are inundated with big fat cats...coon mixes I think...maybe I'll find one there. I just know I am going to get one and I am dumping my vet too.
darn jackie - our conspiracy to get mary to come to delaware has failed yet again... DRAT. It would have worked too if not for you meddling kittens! (LOL)
ilanna i tried...
someday we will lure here with our wily ways:)
Sheryl shared your site and this post with me, and I just wanted to say that I, too, have been thinking about the duality of this day. What you said was beautifully written, and reminded me that one of my good friends celebrates her birthday today.
I remember her telling me how she felt sad about it somedays, especially in 2002. But we love to celebrate her, just as no doubt millions around the world celebrate today as their birthday, their day of growth and yearly reflection.
Life never stops re-birthing, re-gifting, never stops celebrating. And I'm so thankful for that.
:)
Sheryl is your traffic director today- she mentioned you and I'm pleased that I stopped by. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post. I feel that Bin Laden had fallen off the Bush agenda.
Very poignant reminder of beginnings. I need to hold that image in my mind.
Ilanna and Jackie...the two of you are enough to lure me away. My responsibilities here in CT are what keeps me here!!
Hi Kerrianne!! Thank you so much for stopping by.
Your comment: Life never stops re-birthing, re-gifting, never stops celebrating.
That means so much to me. I, like many people, need to hear that today.
Wow...Lisa, thank you too for stopping by. Sheryl was so sweet to like my post enough to share it with her friends.
I didn't think it was spectacular but I did need to write about something positive --I have to go on and I have to have images of hope and the future which a child born on 9/11 2001 epitomizes to me.
Mr. Radio Broadway -- how difficult that must have been to keep your own emotions hidden so that you could keep your school running safely and as effectively as possible.
I had the luxury of sitting in my kitchen, talking to a beloved relative and crying and screaming outloud.
Like you, my husband was in work, holding everything in -- waiting till he could get home to unload his grief and disbelief.
Since you are a radio dude, you might know: have there been any songs composed about 9/11? I wonder what they would sound like...what the lyrics would be and if it would be possible to listen without either getting angry or crying.
I love your post MMM, as always so thoughtful and thought-provoking. I had a woman in my playgroup when A was 5 1/2 months old (as was her daughter) whose husband worked in WTC 1 and he died that day. I always think about that little girl and how very different our girls lives are now.
Wow, that was a very good post that made me think.
Yesterday was such a somber day. I watched the recap as it happened 5 years ago. All the emotion I had on that day when watching it live all came back.
We cant let them win and we wont be afraid to live our lives.
I think this brought us together in some ways yet others use it in a different light that may not be good for us.
Great post!
AMK --We had a family member driving to Newwark to fly to California on Sept 11 when the first plane hit. He waon his way to the airport when he got a call to turn around -- all flights were cancelled. He came back safe and sound. Scary.
Marko - your comment: We cant let them win and we wont be afraid to live our lives -- is exactly how I feel. We cannot live in fear we must straighten our spines and move forward.
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